ottage stage

Main article: Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods

There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic. An indistinct textile
impression has been found at Pavlov, Moravia. Neolithic textiles were found in pile dwellings
excavations in Switzerland and at El Fayum, Egypt at a site which dates to about 5000 BC.

In Roman times, wool, linen and leather clothed the European population, and silk, imported along
the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use of flax fiber in the manufacturing of cloth
in Northern Europe dates back to Neolithic times.

During the late medieval period, cotton began to be imported into Northern Europe. Without any
knowledge of what it came from, other than that it was a plant, noting its similarities to wool, people
in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville,
writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew in India a wonderful tree
which bore tiny lambs on the edges of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent
down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." This aspect is retained in the name for cotton
in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool". By the end
of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions of Asia and the Americas.

The main steps in the production of cloth are producing the fibre, preparing it, converting it to yarn,
converting yarn to cloth, and then finishing the cloth. The cloth is then taken to the manufacturer of
garments. The preparation of the fibres differs the most, depending on the fibre used. Flax requires
retting and dressing, while wool requires carding and washing. The spinning and weaving processes
are very similar between fibers, however.

Spinning evolved from twisting the fibers by hand, to using a drop spindle, to using a spinning wheel.
Spindles or parts of them have been found in archaeological sites and may represent one of the first
pieces of technology available.[5] The spinning wheel was most likely invented in the Islamic world by
the 11th century.[6]